Intel 32nm Clarkdale Core i5 661 Dual Core CPU + GPU Evaluation

If you look back at the battle between AMD and Intel you will see something that is both interesting and funny at the same time. This is a comical little irony that has been repeated over and over for more than a few years.  What is the ironic happening? Well it is where AMD dreams up an idea and talks about it openly only to have someone else bring the product to market. We saw this with the first Dual Core CPUs. Intel came out with the Pentium D on May 25th 2005. This was roughly two months before AMD released the First Athlon 64 X2 in August of 2005 [although the X2 was a massively superior CPU]. The same thing was again see when Intel beat AMD to the Quad Core punch by almost a year with Kenstfield [which ended up outperforming AMD’s native Quad Core]. Naturally, we can debate is this of sheer Intel's engineering power, market position or just the fact that AMD has a permanent habit of roadmap slip-ups that started with the original K8 architecture.

Regardless of the reason, we see the same thing happening all over again. AMD has been talking of moving the GPU onto the CPU for a very long time, a strategy called Fusion. Originally, first Fusion products were supposed to show on the market in 2009 but that obviously didn't happen. Unfortunately for AMD, they have yet to take the first steps towards that goal. Instead we see Intel taking that Idea and again bringing the first steps to market in the form of the Dual Core 32nm Clarkdale CPU. Let’s take a look at this interesting new CPU from Intel and see if it will be remembered like the Pentium-D or the Core 2 Quad.

What’s new
As with most new CPUs there are going to be new and exciting things that come with them. One of first that comes to mind with Clarkdale is the GPU being right on the CPU packaging. It is not on the CPU die [we have to wait for 2011 and 32nm Sandy Bridge architecture which taped out back in May 2009, a year ahead of AMD's Fusion APU, Ed.] but sits next to it. There are multiple reasons for this but the biggest is that the GPU is still at a 45nm process while the CPU core is 32nm. This GPU has also been beefed up from previous versions.

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Intel has added a hardware accelerated dual video decode for smoother HD playback, a new HD and SD sharpness and xvYCC [Extended Gamut YCC Color Space] Post Processing feature. The xvYCC feature is especially interesting as it pushes the color space beyond the traditional sRGB that most IGPs work with. This means cleaning and sharper colors for HD video playback and a better viewing experience.

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Of course xvYCC is not the end of the enhancements that the new GMA HD IGP has to offer.  You also can add Dual [and simultaneous] HDMI support, 12bpc [bpc - bits per channel] Bit Color Depth for both HDMI and DisplayPort, Audio for the DisplayPort and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.  All of these enhancements are aimed squarely at the HTPC enthusiast but seem to leave the gamers out in the cold.

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Next up on our list of new items is the move to the new 32nm process. This move means a reduction in power consumption and also allows for an increase in the number of transistors in the same area [or a more complex CPU without a larger Die].

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Other enhancements include the addition of AES-NI. AES-NI consists of six new instructions that help to combine some of the overhead associated with performing AES mathematical operations and speed up encryption and decryption.

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Clarkdale also brings with it some of the same features and technologies that the Nehalem architecture carries, like advanced smart cache, Hyper-Threading, Turbo Boost, and advanced power gating. The Clarkdale Core i5 661 uses these well to its advantage. Intel has given you all of this inside of an impressively low 87 Watt TDP [for the Core i5 661]. That includes both the CPU and the GPU.